“Goreacle” for Gregoire

If you expect the political fundraising pace to slacken as election day approaches, think again: A big name is coming to town on Oct. 24 to raise money and give a last-minute boost to Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Former Vice President Al Gore, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and central figure in an Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, will campaign here for Gregoire — one of the West Coast governors who have fought the Bush administration on emissions of greenhouse gases.

Gore is no stranger to the Evergreen State.

He was here 17 times between the 1996 and 200 elections, at locales ranging from a sinkhole in Shoreline to the 14,410-foot summit of Mount Rainier. He climbed the Cascades’ highest peak ten years ago.

Gore has also vacationed in the San Juan Islands, and screened “An Inconvenient Truth” at Benaroya Hall as part of a visit to praise Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels for initiating a nationwide mayors’ initiative on climate change.

The “Goreacle” has remained a front-rank object of right wing abuse, particularly in the cult-like ranks of global warming deniers.

He has, however, gained popularity in the West: The region has felt impacts of climate change. Beetles are killing forests, massive fires have swept land from Montana to California. Glaciers in Glacier National Park are disappearing. And native villages in Alaska are feeling early winter storms without the former protection of an early-forming icepack.